6 Ways to Sharpen without Using Plugins!

So sharp you just may cut yourself…

Earlier in the week (Read the article Extinguishing Software Anguish) I discussed just how powerful Photoshop is and how it may be the only piece of software you will ever need. This week’s Free Tutorial surely emphasizes the notion that Photoshop alone, if you know how to use it, can be more powerful than any add-on plugin. As you know, I do take requests for tutorials and this week’s tutorial was requested by my friend, and fellow HDR Insider, Jeffrey.

In an email, he mentioned it would be great to see the different ways to sharpen an image in Photoshop all in one nice little-packaged tutorial. I thought this was a great idea and put together a rather extensive tutorial that showcases 6 methods to sharpen in Photoshop. I don’t expect you to memorize each of these methods so I have included an Actions package with the 6 Methods all done for you!

This is quite a long tutorial so here are the Time Stamps if you would like to skip around:

Topic

Time Stamp

Introduction to Sharpening

00:45

Method 1: Unsharp Mask

02:43

Method 2: High Pass Sharpen

06:56

Method 3: Unsharp Mask + High Pass Sharpen

10:30

Method 4: Adobe Camera Raw as Filter

13:01

Method 5: Sharpen Tool + High Pass

17:11

Method 6: High Pass + Protection Measures

20:04

The Actions

23:01

Overview

28:01

These Actions were meant to be used at the end of a Workflow. The way they interact with your palette is by creating a Stamped Visible Layer.

Absolutely rocks, Blake. This went way beyond what I’d hoped you’d do. Fantastic resource. I have used all of these at some point or another but to see it all done in a single tutorial and compared, makes this really sink in so much better. Thanks a million.

Terrific tutorial, absolutely the best I’ve seen on sharpening methods. Thank you very much for providing and sharing your actions. Your site and tutorials are the most informative and filled with excellent knowledge and tips for a better workflow.

I’m very impressed with this video tutorial, Blake. It’s solid, has great content, and stimulates the viewer to extend their thinking about how to use Photoshop tools in their daily work. And it’s thorough and well presented. Thanks so much for sharing.

Thanks so much for both the tutorial and the actions. I mostly use Lightroom and only now starting out in PS. My challenge now will be deciding on which one of your 6 methods to use and when one is best to use over other. Cheers.

Excellent tutorial and a great summary of the techniques in Photoshop. Thanks for the also for the Actions. Many times I view a tutorial and forget about it if I don’t use the techniques periodically. The Actions serve as a reminder when considering sharpening alternatives.

Blake – Thank you so much for this great tutorial and action set. I’ve played around with various sharpening methods, but I never really knew what the heck I was doing, or what some of the sliders were actually doing to my photos. I was essentially just guessing as to how to sharpen my images. Thanks to your tutorial, I have a much better understanding of what sharpening is, when and when not to apply sharpening. I feel like you removed some blinders that I had on when it came to sharpening. Bravo.

Guessing with sharpening, that’s like stabbing in the dark… no pun intended… Guessing with sharpening can be dangerous, it could potentially be sharpening unwanted areas like shadow noise and such. Glad I could help!

Blake…just got in from a trip and watched this…OUTSTANDING!!! Absolutely great…again, thank you is not enough for all the work you do. You have made this sharping subject very understandable…and again thank you…

BLAKE…I have just run through all of the Actions, except No. 4. All are great and I will use them at one time or the other…I have to tell you again, OUSTANDING. I especially like No. 5…Selective Sharpening. I can’t say enough…thank you…

My own approach to sharpening is to convert the end image to a smart object and run smart sharpen across it and mask out as desired. Next I re-rasterise the image and run high pass in overlay mode not linear light. Going to have to have a look at that mode and see the differences.

One question though that you didn’t address – aside from the “do I sharpen or not” one you’ve introduced another question of “which method do I use and when?” – so do you have a guide to which method to use and when – or is it simply whatever suits ones workflow best?

2. The image. Some images could use a global sharpen, especially if all of the elements are on the same focal plane (a picture of a brick wall). Other times you need to be really selective when the focal plan is on one specific part of the image and the rest is on another focal plane. This is where selective sharpening becomes your Best Friend.

Thanks, Blake, for another great tutorial. It has taken me a week or so to find time to watch it and I found it very helpful. I like how you explained the actions. Often we run actions and are in the dark as what to do to make changes.

It is very important that Actions come with a video tutorial. Everyone creates actions differently and it is hard to know what was in the creators head when they made them. I typically will not provide an action without some sort of video or written direction.

. I have been watching your tutorial “6 Ways to Sharpen in Photoshop Without Plugins”. Towards the end, when you are demonstrating the actions, you play the action, and the first thing it does is create a new layer, and continues with action. Whenever I hit play, with some other actions as well, I get the message – The command “Merge Visible” is not available. When I hit Continue, the action finishes, but I do not have the original layer. If I start off with duplicating the layer, I don’t get the message, but I will have 1 or 2 extra layers. Would you mind explaining why this is happening, and what I can do about it? By the way, I am using Photoshop CC 2014.

Thanks Blake it’s a very good tutorial on sharpening I really enjoyed watching all the ways of sharpening and its confused me which one I would like to use. I am used of Lightroom but not Photoshop. I think I have to learn Photoshop which is better than Lightroom. Thanks again nice presentation hope to see more in the future.

Hey Blake, one of the best, simplest and most understandable tutorials that I’ve ever seen. Had no idea or thought that there were 6 different ways to sharpen in Photoshop and you showed use how to actually sculpt with it as well. I’ve loosely been into easier ways of learning and teaching for most of my 70 years and I find this tutorial amazing. I’ve downloaded many tutorials of a number of things, but this is the first that has inspired me to subscribe. And you gave us Actions too! Blake, you rock.

Great question, Steve. I chose not to show Smart Sharpen because it is very slow on high res images and by the time you are done with it, it’s less effective than the other methods when combined with masks and blend options.

Hi Blake,
Thanks so much for this video. It is very intelligent and enabling, to counter for the occasions when I don’t quite get the focus right.
I stumbled acroos your vodeos when I started to explore Adobe Portfolio, as an alternative to my current one.You instructions were easy to follow and I am working on changing over to Portfolio.
I’ve watched some of your many other videos on Youtube and I am very impressed (and much better skilled) with the knowledge and clarity with which you cover the key information.
Many thanks

Thanks Blake i am only now getting to see this tutorial and i realise that i knew nothing, all those plugins that i never worked out how to use can all go in the bin! One question i have and that is camera shake is there a way to correct of make it less? Thanks my friend. Ed

Lots you can do without plugins! Unfortunately, unless you shoot on a tripod, there isn’t much you can do about camera shake in post processing. You can try a High Pass Sharpen set pretty high, but it may just artifact a blurry photo rather than sharpen it up.

Hi Blake, awesome tutorial, thanks. I have a question for you on the various methods. So, in your opinion which of these would be the best for huge enlargements? Most folks only sharpen for web but what about when you are printing? I’m talking about sizes larger than 40″ where I don’t want to see fringing or crud on the image. Thanks for the help.